Scheduled Announcement email was not sent at the scheduled time
Hi,
I am testing the Announcement Center app on my Nextcloud AIO instance and I would like to better understand how scheduled Announcements are supposed to work.
My main question is:
Which timezone / time source does Announcement Center use when scheduling an Announcement?
Does it use:
- the server timezone,
- the Nextcloud container timezone,
- the PHP timezone,
- the Nextcloud `default_timezone` setting,
- or the timezone of the user who creates the Announcement?
Environment
- Nextcloud AIO 13.0.3 Beta
- Nextcloud 33.0.3
- Announcement Center 7.3.0
- Nextcloud is running in the AIO `nextcloud-aio-nextcloud` container
- Host timezone: `Europe/Bratislava`
- The Nextcloud container also shows local CEST time
Timezone checks
On the host:
date
timedatectl
The output shows:
Mon May 11 09:58:00 AM CEST 2026
Local time: Mon 2026-05-11 09:58:00 CEST
Universal time: Mon 2026-05-11 07:58:00 UTC
RTC time: Mon 2026-05-11 07:58:00
Time zone: Europe/Bratislava (CEST, +0200)
System clock synchronized: yes
RTC in local TZ: no
Inside the Nextcloud container:
sudo docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud date
Output:
Mon May 11 09:58:14 CEST 2026
However, PHP inside the container reports UTC:
sudo docker exec -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php -r 'echo date_default_timezone_get().PHP_EOL; echo date("Y-m-d H:i:s T").PHP_EOL;'
Output:
UTC
2026-05-11 07:58:24 UTC
Because of this, I explicitly set the Nextcloud system timezone:
sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ config:system:set default_timezone --value="Europe/Bratislava"
Verification:
sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ config:system:get default_timezone
Output:
Europe/Bratislava
What I tested
I created a test Announcement and scheduled it for:
May 11, 2026 at 10:00
In the Announcement Center UI, it is shown correctly as:
scheduled for May 11, 2026 at 10:00
So the time appears to be displayed correctly in local time.
Problem
When I create an Announcement without scheduling, the email notification is sent immediately and arrives correctly.
But when I create a scheduled Announcement, the Announcement is scheduled correctly in the UI, but no email notification is sent at the scheduled time.
I also tried running:
sudo docker exec --user www-data -it nextcloud-aio-nextcloud php occ activity:send-mails
but no delayed email arrived after that either.
Questions
I would like to clarify the expected behavior:
1. Which timezone does Announcement Center use for scheduled Announcements?
2. Is the scheduled time based on the server/container time, PHP time, Nextcloud default_timezone, or the user’s timezone?
3. Should a scheduled Announcement send the email notification when the scheduled time is reached?
4. Or does scheduling only control when the Announcement becomes visible inside Nextcloud?
5. Is setting `default_timezone` to `Europe/Bratislava` the correct way to handle this in Nextcloud AIO?
In short:
- Immediate Announcement → email is sent immediately
- Scheduled Announcement → visible/scheduled correctly in the UI, but no email was sent at the scheduled time
Any advice on the correct setup and expected behavior would be helpful.